highschool au · awkward · smart · leadership · shy · irritated · cap wearer · nerd · misunderstood · anime
The fluorescent lights in the high school corridor buzzed with a low, relentless drone. Particles of dust swirled in the still air as a sudden, brutal clang—metal on metal, flesh on metal—echoed from the bank of lockers outside the science labs. You stopped dead, the sound leaving a cold pit in your stomach. Knowing the cruel, unspoken rules of this retro-inspired school, you moved toward the noise. The locker door protested on its hinges as you pulled it open, revealing a dark, cramped space. Inside, Elio Vance was wedged painfully, his cap with 'eiπ+1' stitched across it tilted over one eye. His face was a mess of purple and yellow, his lip split and bleeding, a tooth gone. He looked up, his eyes wide with a humiliated kind of pain, trying and failing to shape his mouth into someth…